Internet impeded for 21 days after cable cut

 By VICTORIA RUBADIRI on 2/27/12

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 27 – Internet users are to experience slow connectivity speeds for about three  weeks, following a confirmed fibre optic cable cut affecting The East African Marine System (TEAMS).
In a statement, TEAMS' General Manager Joel Tanui says undersea cable maintenance company E-Marine will commence repair work on the damaged cable to reduce the downtime and its impact.

The cut occurred when a ship that was docking, dragged its anchor on the cable, four kilometres from the Mombasa landing station on Saturday, affecting a significant proportion of the international fibre capacity in and out of the country.

Mobile operators Airtel Kenya and Safaricom on Sunday announced that they are working to rectify the situation, by re-routing their Internet traffic to alternative capacities.

About eight data operators have been affected and have also been looking at redundant routes.
Safaricom Director of Corporate Affairs Nzioka Waita admitted on Sunday that their data customers were likely to continue experiencing service degradation for the next 24 hours as the firm re-routes internet traffic to alternative capacity in the SEACOM and EASSy cables.

"We expect that over the next 24 hours, between 80 and 90 percent of our traffic will be back at normal speeds," he added.

Waita added that they are in talks with officials from TEAMS who anticipate that it might take more than seven days to fix the fault.

"From our discussions with TEAMS, we do expect that it (repairs) will take at the very minimum a week and a half but during that time we will have already made alternative arrangements," he emphasised.

Voice, SMS and other services however remain unaffected as the firm activated its satellite link to provide its back -up capacity.

Safaricom has a 19 percent capacity in TEAMS and has leased capacity in the privately funded SEACOM and EASSy as it seeks to become competitive in data services market.
According to statistics from the Communications Commission of Kenya, the operator is the market leader in the local data market, with 92 percent of all internet subscriptions in Kenya on Safaricom connected devices.
The company now provides fibre connectivity to 500 buildings.

Airtel could drop low-cost strategy

Bharti Airtel is going back to the drawing board to chart a new strategy for the African market, following what it termed as an unexpected and surprising response to its low-cost model from the continent.

The Indian telecom company told participants at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, that it was surprised to find that the African market did not increase its talk-time, which was critical to supporting its low-cost model.

"Unlike India, we were surprised that in Africa, lower tariffs could not increase volumes. In Africa, subscribers use the money saved on lower-calling rates to buy food and not to talk more.

"This means that we have to think of a new model that works there," the firm's chairman and MD, Mr Sunil Mittal, said.

This vindicates data released by the Communications Commission of Kenya at the height of the price wars, which indicated that low calling rates failed to lift talk-time.

The announcement is a signal that the firm could opt out of the low-cost model, which has forced mobile operators across most of the 17 countries it operates in Africa to follow suit.

It will also be welcome relief to Safaricom and Telkom Orange, who have described the low-cost model as unsustainable.

The firm, however, said Africa remains critical to its future growth and hoped to transfer experiences and success in its business model to the developed markets.

Mr Mittal said Africa and other emerging markets need smartphones and tablets to be priced below $50 to allow the data evolution that is shaping up to turn into real growth.

"My suggestion is that countries can give a huge tender to a single phone maker to deliver the smartphones as long as they are below $50," he said.

By PAUL WAFULA pwafula@ke.nationmedia.com IN BARCELONA, SPAIN

Mobile World Congress 2012 opens in Barcelona, Spain

More than 60,000 players in the telecommunications industry are gathered in Barcelona, Spain for the Mobile World Congress 2012 where technology companies will discuss future of communications and the networked society.

The annual conference, which kicked off on Monday, has attracted over 3000 chief executive officers from the telecommunications sector around the world and is expected to give a platform for players in the mobile industry to make announcements of their latest innovations. According to the proponents of the networked society more than 50 billion electronic devices such as fridges, television sets, washing machines, iron boxes, ovens among others will be connected to the internet by 2020. "We shall have machines talking to one another and all this will be made possible through internet connectivity.

"For example, an alarm clock and the lighting system can be connected in such a way that when the alarm goes, the lights automatically come on," Mr Steven Shovel, an exhibitor from Ericsson, a network infrastructure manufacturer told the Nation at the sidelines of the conference. Ericsson plans to launch new products during the conference around the areas of Mobile broadband, operation and business Support systems. Other participants showcasing the latest innovations include GSMA, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony among other gadget makers. Network security, cloud computing and mobile money transfer will also be discussed in light of how they fit into the world of connectivity.

Proponents of the networked society say gadgets which won't have capability for internet connection at the turn of this century will be seen as 'dead' items and difficult to use. Already manufactures of electronic gadgets and mobile network infrastructure developers attending the conference are formulating acceptable standards that will guide this internet revolution. The conference will end on March 1. According to industry data, over 400 million smartphones will be sold this year and by 2016, over 4 billion others will be deployed. Players in the mobile industry are also discussing innovations around the smartphones and tablets as well as how to develop gadgets that can be accessible to price sensitive gadgets for markets such as Africa.

By PAUL WAFULA, pwafula@ke.nationmedia.com IN BARCELONA, SPAIN